Crispin Burke has a hilarious look at Iran's problem with actually coordinating its Air Force. Apparently, Iran's ancient (by our standards) 1970s F-4 Phantom fighters, due to C2 problems, show down their own drones (the same ones that Iran has been trumpeting lately). He quotes from a recent Wall Street Journal story:
A few weeks ago, according to official and private reports, the Iranian air force shot down three drones near the southwestern city of Bushehr, where a Russian-supplied nuclear reactor has just started up. When the Revolutionary Guards inspected the debris, they expected to find proof of high-altitude spying. Instead, the Guards had to report to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that the air force had blasted Iran's own unmanned aircraft out of the sky. Apparently, according to official Iranian press accounts, the Iranian military had created a special unit to deploy the drones—some for surveillance and others, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bragged on Sunday, to carry bombs—but hadn't informed the air force.
This, however, is nothing new. The coordination problems between the regular military and the IRGC during the Iran-Iraq War were quite epic. Middle Eastern dictators love creating "Republican Guard"-type auxiliary armies with more ideological commitment to the regime and the ability to hold the regular army in check, operational integration be damned. Much of Iran's equipment in general is vintage as well. This hasn't stopped them from puffing out their chests--or resorting to Photoshop:
I can haz sum missiles plz?
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